2014.11.0403:17:17UTC+00Manufacturing in eurozone maintains slow recovery

The recovery of manufacturing in the eurozone remained sluggish last month, says a closely monitored gauge of purchasing managers.

Based on the final reading of Markit Economics’ purchasing managers’ index for the month of October, activity levels in factories across the monetary region was at 50.6, just below the initial flash estimate of 50.7 and barely above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. Ireland led the way for eurozone members with a 56.6 reading, while its second largest economy, France, was near the bottom at 48.5, an improvement from the original 47.3.

Activity levels in Italy fell to their lowest in nearly a year and a half at 49, but both Spain and Germany maintained their moderate growth levels from before.

Markit’s senior economist, Rob Dobson, described the latest data as indicative of the eurozone’s former recovery leader’s struggles to regain the foothold it lost in the middle of 2014. He added that, “Manufacturing is unlikely to provide any meaningful boost to the currency union’s anaemic GDP growth.”

The PMI also suggested the possibility of inflation remaining close to the current dangerously low 0.4%. Aside from declining oil markets, prices for input and output charges also fell last month.